Saturday, February 7, 2009

Input from a Health Care Provider that Really CARES

Dear All,

This is a post from my heart to yours. If not for one of my very special health care provider's walk beside me during this journey and his faith in me, I would not be here today. Last night in my excitement getting ready to go to Mexico, I was moved to (yet, once more) thank him from the bottom of my heart. And I explained more of our experimental efforts that he has been aware of for a few months. NOW, I want to share with YOU an excerpt from his response back to me. My friend, Kai (health care professional), wrote to me:

"Keep sending me the research articles/journals, very interesting. It's hard to keep up with all the research studies and trying to figure out which ones are legit...time will tell. Kind of like Multiple Sclerosis or Autism; nobody knows the exact cause(s) or cure(s) but there are people who are symptom-free. 10 years from now we will all be saying, "duh, no kidding, that makes sense!" Just like Penicillin being a mold! Anyway, you need to take the credit for healing, we just made you a stronger foundation for your spine, spine surgeons are great "carpenters" but the central nervous system is a complicated system.

Your passion reminds of the late Christopher Reeves who was determined to find a cure for spinal re-generation. Positive energy can perform miracles! I wish I could inject your "positive energy" into some of my patients to get them off their butts and self pity [but that is another topic]. Anyway, all the best and enjoy Mexico."

Folks, I love you guys. Take heart, there IS help ..... with PASSION to STAND UP AND FIGHT we will win this battle. With OUR help, our health care providers will find answers but they need OUR help!!

I take all of you with me in my heart to Mexico! Karen Kovacik

Friday, February 6, 2009

CoFounder Headed to Mexico!

Greetings all ...... Karen, here. My experimental therapy is going so very well. I know a few of you are also on board trying some of the therapy with your doctors.

I'm heading to Puerto Morelos, Q Roo, Mexico to go snorkel the second longest barrier reef in the world. I could not have done this six months ago. I love you all and while I'm gone please keep the faith, keep looking for answers, keep signing up, keep researching.

There IS hope and together we can live a better life! Jon and Cindy will be on board while I am gone. God bless you all.

Three New Members Today

WELCOME! You have been posted to the members page. Contact information is listed on the Members Page. Feel free to email anyone on the list. They will be thrilled to hear from you. We are a family and we WILL succeed together!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Reviewing Physicians in Process!

Our web site has been reviewed by several health professionals. We are currently in process of making arrangements to have several partner with us. So far the reviews have been great and positive. We hope to have some articles submitted soon. Some physicians have expressed an interest in publishing to our site from time to time.

Stay tuned for some exciting progress!

Keep the faith and onward!

Arachnoiditis Sufferers Action and Monitoring Society (ASAMS) New Zealand Inc.

Here is another great resource: http://www.arachnoiditis.info/index.html

If you have a web site you would like us to add, please let us know or post on the blog. We have more to follow .... in fact, we have so much it is taking us a bit of time to add the information.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Burton Report

This link will take you to The Burton Report - www.burtonreport.com There have been several requests for this information. There are multiple pages and the site suggests you read the articles in order as they are posted on the site.

Please note at the bottom of the first page the following note which we are quoting directly from the site: "The Burton Report® represents a collection of three online educational Informatives. Informatives are internet journals first published on January 1, 2000 and dedicated to the principle that health care and the health care process must be based on truth as well as the patient's best interest."

We hope this report is beneficial and informative for our readers.

Monday, February 2, 2009

You can subscribe for updates via the RSS icon!

Please note once into this blog you may go to the icon RSS feed and subscribe to updates and be notified when articles are published if you would like to be informed on all articles published to the Life With Arachnoiditis BLOG.

Life With Arachnoiditis Website

Please visit our web site at www.lifewitharachnoiditis.com We are well on our way and will be formally launching our efforts by the end of February. Please send your family, friends and caregivers! We will be partnering with other organizations soon.

Research Article on Obstetric Epidurals & Chronic AA

We believe sharing research articles and abstracts with patients, caregivers, family, physicians and researchers is critical to finding answers. Jon McHann sent this article in some time back and we'd like to share it with you. The article is from the British Journal of Anaesthesia and is located online at http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/1/109 This is fairly comprehensive informative regarding obstetric epidurals and Chronic Adhesive Arachnoiditis. Please note at the end of many of these articles there are more articles which you can back track in and find more information.

Any and all research information that "may" play into arachnoiditis and associated spinal conditions is WELCOME.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Promising Research

Please read British Journal of Radiology research article found at http://bjr.birjournals.org/cgi/content/full/77/922/885 Consider the similarities of AA to EF in the immune system and inflammatory process. Please forward to anyone that may benefit from this article (it's not new!) including your physicians. Read Norman Cousins' book, Anatomy of an Illness, where he achieves a cure for incurable disease via high dose vitamin C IV therapy. Please focus on research in ANY direction that "may" affect Arachnoiditis, Adhesive Arachnoiditis, Epidural Fibrosis (note the British Journal of Radiology article refers to fibrosis mechanisms and "progressive EF"). Since many of us have developed severe allergic reactions, it "appears" there "may" indeed be an immune system and/or inflammatory process involved. Send any valuable research articles to a LifeWithArachnoiditis cofounder. STAND UP AND FIGHT.

Disability Info Connection

There is a quarterly newsletter that may be of interest to readers: The Quarterly Newsletter of DisabilityInfo.gov. Visit www.disabilityinfo.gov for more information or to sign up for the newsletter.

Welcome to Life with Arachnoditis Blog

We want to welcome you to our blog. Our hope is to have information posted on a regular basis that will help those of you with arachnoiditis, epidural fibrosis, adhesive arachnoiditis, failed back surgery sydrome (FBSS) and other related spinal conditions.

There is research being done that may be able to help many of us. In particular, research is being done in the realm of inflammatory disorders, auto immune disorders and related allergies. We hope to post research as it is available.

It has taken much time and organization for us to put together LifeWith Arachnoidits and it will continue to be a labor of love where we hope to find answers and help you and your loved ones achieve quality of life.

Karen Kovacik, CoFounder
South Fork, Colorado